


Love the One You're With

by lanalucy



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Breasts, Comfort Sex, Community: bsg_kink, Cross-Posted on LiveJournal, Cunnilingus, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Kissing, Sleepy Sex, Unrequited Crush, Woman on Top
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-13 01:22:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1207576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanalucy/pseuds/lanalucy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My bsg_kink Kinky Valentine for embolalia.</p><p>Thanks to newnumbertwo for the beta, and for the idea that sparked the story in the first place!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love the One You're With

**Author's Note:**

  * For [embolalia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/embolalia/gifts).



Kara got to _Galactica_ and reported to Commander Adama. _Zak’s dad._ She wondered if she’d ever stop thinking of him as “Zak’s dad,” if he’d ever be his own person in her head. She waited outside his hatch, mentally shuffling her feet restlessly. Physically, she was standing at ease, her bag at her feet. 

The Marine at the hatch nodded to her, and she picked up her bag to enter the Commander’s office.

“Kara!” He greeted her warmly, as if she were a long-lost family member. She wished she were family. Then again...

She nodded, stretching her hand over his desk. “Commander.”

“I’m glad you decided to take me up on my offer. I’m looking forward to having Starbuck on my ship. Maybe you can teach these old fogies something about flying.”

Kara smiled tentatively.

“I’ve got your rack assignment, and a map. Coupla weeks, and you’ll know every nook and cranny of the Old Girl, but for now, you’ll probably want to keep this in your pocket, just in case. You’ll need to report to the CAG, Jackson Spencer, at 1500.”

“Thanks, sir.”

“Welcome aboard, Kara.” He smiled, those big teeth showing in a wide smile that so reminded her of Zak’s.

“Glad to be here, sir.” _Now to get the frak out of here._

“Dismissed.”

She gave him a not-quite-regulation salute and left. She glanced at the map when she got into the corridor, and the Marine looked down at her. “Don’t know where you want to go first, sir, but pretty much everything is going to be down the corridor that way.”

Kara smiled at him. “Thanks, Private.”

She managed to find the bunks without too much trouble - she was good with maps, and had already memorized a floor plan for _Galactica_ before coming aboard. She tossed her bag on the rack, thought about pulling out her idols, her picture of Zak. _I’ll unpack later when there are fewer people._ She didn’t know these people, didn’t want them asking questions she wasn’t ready to answer, especially about who she was to the Commander. _The mess. Good place to get a feel for personnel._

She grabbed a cup of coffee and found a seat against a wall, settled in to watch and listen, until she needed to report to the CAG. The crew was pretty friendly with each other, talked about the Commander, “the Old Man,” as if he were their grandfather or some sort of benevolent god. In other circumstances, Kara might have found that pretty funny, but she was still too raw to find humor in much. Not for the first time, she wondered if she’d made the right decision to come here, of all places. She’d needed to leave Flight School, no question. She couldn’t teach anymore without seeing Zak everywhere. But had she needed to come _here_? To serve under the man whose son she’d killed? Well, right or wrong, she was here. Had to stay for at least a year before she could request reassignment. Time to get her head on straight and pretend like she was just another Viper pilot.

She stood, dropped her cup into the dish bin and headed for the CAG’s office. _Spencer. Dipper._ She stood outside the hatch for a moment, then knocked.

“Enter!”

“Lieutenant Kara Thrace, reporting, sir.”

“Ah. The Old Man told me you’d be coming today. Find everything okay?”

“Found the bunk and the mess. What more do I need?” Kara put on her Starbuck smile.

“Ask around later. There’s always a good Triad game going in the rec room. You play?”

“I like to get a hand in every now and then.”

“Good. Morning briefings are at 0600. You’re not on the schedule for a couple of days, and your first couple of shifts are in Viper maintenance. Old Man didn’t give me enough notice to get you flying sooner.”

“It’s fine. A good Viper pilot needs to know her bird, and maintenance’ll be a chance for me to learn my girl’s ins and outs.”

“Good attitude, Thrace.”

Kara shrugged.

“You have any questions?”

“Not really. Everything I wanna know, I’ll have to learn by walking the corridors. Never been on a ship this big.”

“It can be a little intimidating. Commander give you a map?”

“Yeah.” She pulled it out to wave it in front of her.

“All right then. Good to have you aboard. Dismissed.”

“Sir.” Kara saluted and headed back out. Time to check out her bird. And the competition.  
\----------  
Kara came down the ladder just in time to watch a deckhand and a skinny-ass LT shout their way into a maintenance supply room. _Do they actually think they’re being clever with that?_ She found another deckhand at what appeared to be the central storage place for tools. It looked like they kept a pretty clean deck. 

“Lieutenant Thrace. Starbuck. New Viper pilot.”

The young girl smiled at her. “Specialist Henderson. Everyone calls me Cally.” Her eyes flitted briefly toward that supply room and she continued, “Chief’s um, busy right now.”

“Busy. That what you call it on this ship? I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

Cally giggled. “Boomer just came off CAP. Her new ECO’s doing her post-flight check. Nobody else on deck right now. You wanna meet him?”

“Sure. Good to know who’s navigating the buses.”

Cally led her toward the Raptor, sitting on the flight deck with its hatch up. Kara could see a tall guy inside the Raptor, marking things off on the checklist.  
\----------  
Cally watched as Helo turned and ducked to hop out of the Raptor. He raised his head and his face lit up.

“Kara?” He dropped the checklist and hugged Starbuck tight, her feet off the ground for a long moment.

“Aww, Helo. I didn’t know you were here.” When she smiled at Helo, she seemed much more approachable.

“Just been here a couple of weeks. Haven’t had time to write.”

_If Helo likes her, she must be okay._

“How’s Zak? What are you doing here, anyway? Last I heard from you, you were -”

Starbuck’s face turned to stone as she stepped back out of Helo’s arms. “Not getting married.”

“Oh, Kara.” Helo tried to hug her again, but Starbuck stayed just out of reach. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Gotta go.” She turned and started to walk away.

Helo snatched up his checklist, well, Boomer’s checklist, and started after her. “Kara, wait up,” but Starbuck kept walking.

Helo watched her go, shaking his head, then he smacked his checklist against his other palm.

“Sir?” Cally took hold of the checklist, waiting for Helo to let go.

“Yeah, Cally.”

“Zak. Is that just a coincidence?”

“What do you mean, Cally?”

“You haven’t been here long, so maybe you don’t know. Commander Adama was gone for about a week a couple of months ago. His son Zak died during one of his first Viper flights.”

Helo’s eyes were locked on Cally’s face, but she could tell he wasn’t seeing her at all. She also saw the moment he put it all together.

“Frak. Frakfrakfrak. Her boyfriend - no her fiance - was Zak Adama. I really hadn’t thought about that, didn’t even meet the Commander when I got here. Never really made the connection in my head. Shit.”

Cally took the checklist from his slack fingers and pushed his arm. “I’m sure she’s not mad at you, sir. Go talk to her.” She filed away the information about Starbuck’s - Kara’s - relationship to the Commander for future reference. Maybe tell a couple of people so they didn’t ask her awkward questions during her first few weeks. Maybe having Starbuck here would be good for Helo, too. She’d seen the way he looked at his pilot, and anything with Boomer just wasn’t happening. She shook her head as she walked back to the tool station.  
\----------  
Kara wandered the ship, feeling the constant hum under her feet, learning the rhythm of the people in the corridors, the voices around her. She went back and stowed some of her stuff in her locker, took out her ditty bag and asked about the head. One of the other pilots said they were going that way, so she walked with him.

She picked a stall, stripped down and turned on the water. Lukewarm. She’d have to get used to that. That and shorter showers. She vaguely remembered reading that water was more tightly regulated aboard ship. _Well, I won’t be having any steamy shower sex anyway._ The thought hurt, but not quite as badly as it had two months ago.

On the heels of that, she wondered where Lee was, and then wondered why she still cared. He’d made his choice. Abandoned their friendship.

A couple of hours later, after lights out, she was curled on her side, not really sleeping, as had become her norm. She heard the shhh of her curtain being pulled aside and turned to tear somebody a new one.

“Just me, Kara.”

“Go away, Helo.”

Instead he stretched himself out and pulled her in tight against his chest. “Nope.”

“Frakker.”

He laughed softly. “You say the sweetest things.”

She wiggled, trying to get closer. 

“Kara.”

“What? I know you’re not here expecting me to cry on your shoulder, so you must be here to frak me.”

“Well, I wasn’t, but now that you mention it…”

She reached behind her, fumbling at his thigh, then turned over. “We could always say hello again. Forget we saw each other earlier.”

“Could work. I wouldn’t feel like such an asshole if I hadn’t seen you earlier.”

“Anytime I can do something to help you feel better about yourself, Helo.” She grabbed his neck and fused their lips together.

_He always did know how to kiss. Gods, this feels good._

Helo’s giant hand snuck under her tank and palmed her back, his thumb stroking the skin just under her tattoo. _Wonder if he knows how much that turns me on?_

She pulled her mouth away from his. “You’re wearing too many clothes, Helo.”

“I don’t remember it ever mattered much to you how much I was or wasn’t wearing.”

“Maybe I’m just feeling sentimental. Maybe I want to check and make sure you haven’t gotten fat since the last time.”

Helo snorted. “I should probably do the same.”

“I’ve totally gotten fat and lazy, Helo. They use a crane to get me into my Viper now.”

He laughed, then his kiss cut off whatever she would have said next. His tongue slid languidly over and around hers, and his hand glided down into the back of her shorts to cup her ass in the same rhythm. 

“Mmm.” 

He pushed her shorts and panties down over the curve of her ass, and Kara smiled into the kiss. _He’s gotten smoother at that._ She pushed her hand down between them to push at the front of her shorts.

Helo pulled at her hair to stop the kiss and they both worked her shorts and panties down until she could kick them down into the foot of her rack.

“You too, Helo.”

While he took his sweats off, she wriggled out of her sports bra, tossing it away, too. Helo dropped his shorts and ran his hand up Kara’s calf and knee, pulling her thigh over his. “So soft, Kara.”

She mocked him by skimming her hand down his hip and between his legs. “So hard, Helo.”

“You wanna be on top?”

“Just frak me.”

“If you insist.” He pushed into her slowly, and they both breathed out quiet groans. 

“Oh, frak, that’s good, Helo.” She’d forgotten how it felt with anybody but Zak. She pushed the thought away and held on tighter to Helo. He moved in and out, one arm underneath her on the small of her back, the other tilting up her chin. He nibbled at the corners of her mouth before biting her bottom lip.

Kara’s fingers dug into Helo’s ribs as he sped up. “Harder, Helo. You know I like it harder.”

“Slide up on top, Kara.” He pushed with the hand on her ass, pulled on her hip with the other until she was straddling him. Her weight and the change in position pushed him deeper. “Yes. Gods yes, Kara.” Both hands went to her hips, pulling her down hard every time he frakked up into her. 

Kara lost herself for a few minutes, the smooth glide of his body inside hers, the bruising grip of his hands, the harsh sound of his breathing. _This. I can do this._ Much too quickly, though, Helo’s stroke stuttered and he started making the little sounds that she knew meant he was coming. 

“Helo.”

“I know,” he panted. A few seconds later, he pulled out of her, pushed her over toward the bulkhead, and scrambled down in the rack. 

His tongue was on her clit, his fingers pushing into her. His fingers weren’t his cock, but they were longer than average and thick and _Oh. That’s new. Whoa._ She smacked a hand into the bulkhead and bit her lip to keep from crying out, as his tongue and fingers pushed her into a more powerful climax than she had been expecting from him. She lay there, bottom lip between her teeth and her heart pounding while Helo kissed her curls and her inner thighs and the bottom edge of her belly.

When she could breathe again, she asked, “What the frak was that, Helo?”

“Oh, a little something I learned since I saw you last.”

“A little something? Nice to see you again too, Helo.” She flopped her head back against the pillow and peeled her hand off the bulkhead. “Yeah. Nice to see you, too.” She didn’t even mind when he laughed and crawled up to cuddle.

Just before she drifted off, she asked, “Anybody see you, Helo?”

“Not that you ever cared, but no. Even if they had, nobody would say anything.”

“I noticed. I mean, your pilot and that deckhand might as well have left the hatch open. Do they think they’re fooling anyone with that fake fighting crap?”

Karl’s lack of a response clued her in. 

_Oh. So that’s the way it is?_ “You know there’s an ancient saying - If you can’t be with the one you love…”

“Yeah. Love the one you’re with.”

“Seems like there might be some truth to that.”

Helo sighed. “Same time tomorrow, then?”

“Unless somebody better-hung shows up first.” 

She giggled at his softly uttered, “Bitch.”

“Night, Helo.”  
\----------  
Karl’s hands were full of warm, naked female, and it took him a minute to remember he’d fallen asleep in Kara’s rack. _Kara’s here. As irreverent and prickly as she’s always been._

“Mmm.” Kara nestled in and kissed his chest.

Karl hugged her tighter for a moment, then loosened his hold. He pushed Kara onto her back and kissed her neck. He brushed his fingertips across her shoulder and down her arm to the back of her hand. He skimmed his palm back up her belly to cradle her breast and leaned down to lick her nipple, feeling it crinkle on his tongue. 

Kara’s low murmurs filled the quiet of her rack - she was waking up. He moved so he was lying between her legs, his chest on her lower torso.

He suckled gently and switched breasts. Kara began moaning, and he reached his hand up to cover her mouth. He rocked in place a little, letting the weight of his body press his cock into the sheets. He switched breasts again, and when he felt Kara’s tongue wrap around one of his fingers, he moved his hand to her other breast and sucked harder. 

She held his head in place, and made tiny soft grunts with each pull of his mouth and tongue. She was rocking underneath him now, and he pressed down on her harder, knowing that would be both too much and not enough. Kara tried to say something, and he heard her swallow.

“Karl.”

“Mmm?”

“Up here.”

He took one last hard tug and dragged himself up her body. “Yeah?”

She smiled sleepily at him. ‘You know what I want.”

He smiled back and kissed her softly, then pushed himself into her and frakked her, as slowly as he could stand until she bit his jaw.

“Now, Helo. Quit frakkin’ with me.”

He worked his fingers down between them and rubbed hard with the pad of his thumb until she climaxed, slid gently in and out until she stopped trembling, then slammed into her for the few strokes it took to reach his own orgasm.

“Mmmm. Gotta admit, I missed that, Helo. Thanks.”

He held back a laugh as he said, “Any time, Kara.”


End file.
